


Best Laid Plans

by thudworm



Series: At Long Last [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Based on a True Story, First Date, M/M, Minor Jane Foster/Thor, Minor Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 00:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10651353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm
Summary: Directly follows the happenings of 'At Long Last,' but should be fine to read as a standalone.Steve and Tony have finally figured out their feelings for each other, now they just have the rest of the team to deal with. And a first date to organise, but things don't always go to plan...





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't know where the Nat/Pepper came from in this; it certainly wasn't planned, but now that it's here I'm curious to see where my muse takes it, if that's something anyone would be interested in.
> 
> Like part 1, this is based on my relationship with my now husband. So that should give some hint as to where I plan to take the story ;)

As was usually the case in the morning, Steve was the first one in the kitchen. Even before the amount of sleep he needed had decreased thanks to Erskine’s serum he had been a morning person (much to Bucky’s consternation), and his habit of rising incredibly early had only become more pronounced after waking up in this new century. There was something peaceful about running when there was barely anyone else present, and those who were around tended not to pay him any mind.

Clint was the first to join him for breakfast, and Steve forced the maudlin thoughts away. He had a much easier time of it than usual, since thinking of Tony and their conversation (and kiss!) yesterday was more than enough to improve his mood significantly. Before he had a chance to wish Clint a good morning, he was interrupted by Clint's question. “Where's Tony? I was expecting you two to still be  _ otherwise occupied _ this morning.”

Steve could feel a telltale blush heating up his cheeks and the tips of his ears. The emphasis of Clint’s statement clearly implied what was assumed to have happened last night, which was very far removed from what had actually happened. No matter how much Steve may have wished otherwise in the heat of the moment, they didn't get any further than a bit of kissing. Pepper had come looking for Tony, all too soon in Steve’s opinion, dragging him off to deal with paperwork and other formalities following the meeting. Although Pepper finding them didn't explain how Clint knew, or at least thought he knew, about anything between he and Tony. 

“You’d have to ask JARVIS to be sure, but Tony’s probably still asleep. In his own bed, before you go getting any wild ideas. Unless he went and overworked himself to exhaustion down in the workshop. Not that I have any idea why you would expect me to know Tony’s whereabouts. Or why you seem so sure that there’s something going on between us.” Steve knew he didn’t have much hope of convincing Clint, but he didn’t want to confirm the relationship yet either. Telling everyone should be a joint decision between he and Tony, despite how much Steve may have wanted to shout it from the rooftop. 

Clint just laughed at that. “Don’t bother trying to play dumb with me, Cap, they don’t call me Hawkeye for nothing. Also, JARVIS let the cat out of the bag when Pepper came looking for Tony last night. Nat thought it best to give her a heads up before she went downstairs and potentially got an eyeful more than she bargained for.”

Steve felt his face heating up even more, and pointedly turned away from Clint to focus very intently on watching the coffee machine. He was saved from having to reply to Clint by Natasha, who had snuck up behind him without his notice, and then maneuvered herself directly in front of the coffee machine to claim the first cup. She caught his eye with a wink, before addressing Clint. “Who got an eyeful of what? Did you manage to misplace your pants  _ again _ , Clint?”

Clint sputtered indignantly at that. “Hey! That only happened twice. And the second time wasn’t even my fault. My pants needed to be sacrificed for the greater good!”

Bruce chose that moment to enter the kitchen, and the conversation. “Usually I’m the one who winds up without pants in public. What possible purpose could your pants have serve?”

“Classified.” At Bruce’s disbelieving snort, Clint nodded emphatically. “No, really. You would not believe some of the shit Nat and I have seen and done in our time at SHIELD. Tell them about that mission in Istanbul.”

The conversation about interesting missions continued on from there, with Steve even sharing a tale from his time with the Howling Commandos. There were no further comments made about the relationship between him and Tony, and Steve mouthed a ‘thank you’ to Natasha for the diversion when he managed to catch her eye. 

Steve had finished eating, and the others were almost done, by the time Tony shuffled his way into the kitchen. He was clearly not yet fully awake, only responding with a halfhearted mumble to Bruce's greeting. He made a beeline for the coffee machine, ignoring Steve’s presence and completely oblivious to the amused looks being sent his way by Bruce and Clint.

Clint muttered something to Natasha that sounded suspiciously like “looks like someone was kept up all night.” Thankfully Tony was still too preoccupied with draining the first cup of coffee and pouring a second to pay any attention to anything or anyone else. It wasn’t until he had moved on to his third cup in about as many minutes that Tony acknowledged the rest of the team. 

“Morning all. No time to stay and chat, important things to do. Secret important things to organise.” With that, Tony left the room, but not before stretching up to kiss Steve on the cheek. 

Steve felt the full force of his blush return as he was stared at by Natasha, Bruce, and Clint. He cleared his throat before speaking, aiming for what Tony liked to call his ‘Cap voice.’ “I believe we all have places to be. Clint- you were expected at SHIELD. Bruce- you mentioned needing to continue your work in the lab? Natasha- I’ll be waiting for you in the gym for our planned sparring session.”

With that, Steve turned and left, hoping to avoid hearing the not-at-all-subtle cheers and comments coming from his teammates in the wake of Tony’s demonstration of affection. 

*

Tony was definitely looking forward to seeing the shocked reactions of the other Avengers when Thor turned up unannounced. Thor had contacted Tony last week to inform the Avengers of his return to Midgard and to apologise for not coming to see them immediately, because his first priority was to return to Jane. Tony had waved off Thor’s apologies and invited him to stay at the tower whenever he wanted for as long as he wanted. Thor had agreed on today as the day he wanted to arrive, and Tony had been more than happy to extend the invitation to include Thor’s girlfriend Jane, better known as Dr Jane Foster, and the focus of Tony's latest nerd crush after he had discovered her work in the aftermath of the Chitauri invasion of New York. 

In the months since the Avengers had all moved into the tower a household tradition had developed for ordering in massive amounts of food and gathering together to watch whichever movie was chosen by the person randomly selected by JARVIS. There had been several incidents of the fight for control leading to minor injuries before JARVIS had been enlisted as an impartial judge, and his word was treated as law. There was no rhyme or reason to which nights became movie nights and, though Clint had given him an odd look or three, no one was suspicious of Tony’s insistence that they held one tonight.

It was Natasha’s turn to choose the movie, which meant there was no predicting what they would be watching, and left everyone else to argue about what to have for dinner. Clint and Steve were firmly of the opinion that pizza was a far superior idea than Bruce and Tony’s suggestion of Chinese. They were still squabbling with neither side willing to concede ground when Pepper entered and interrupted. “Do I need to ask JARVIS to step in again to stop the petty squabbling? I’d rather not have a repeat of the ‘Inception’ Incident.”

“Pepper! I thought you had that conference call to deal with, or are you free to join us?” Tony asked eagerly.

“We ended up having to reschedule, so I think I can find a few free hours to spend up here. Only if no-one objects, though, I wouldn’t want to intrude on team bonding.” 

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re always welcome, Pep! Tell her, guys.”

A chorus of agreement came from the others, before the dinner argument resumed once again. Natasha and Pepper both refused to be drawn into the nonsense, standing off to the side to avoid the dramatic gesticulating as they watched the argument become more and more ridiculous, particularly between Clint and Tony.

They had been at it for almost five minutes, and Pepper seemed like she was about to step in and call a timeout, when a sudden, unexpected, and very loud clap of thunder took everyone by surprise. Everyone except Tony was shocked to look out the window to the sight of Thor, just hovering there as if it was nothing to be 90-odd floors up in the air. 

Thor’s grand entrance worked even better than Tony could have hoped for. Nat and Pepper’s conversation stopped mid-word, and Bruce almost dropped the glass of water he was holding. The best reaction off all, though, was Clint. He had been perched on the back of one of the couches, and Thor's arrival had startled him enough to cause him to lose his balance and topple to the floor. 

“JARVIS, please tell me caught that on camera?” Tony managed to ask through his laughter. “That would make for a fantastic viral video, but probably not as good as that time you somehow tripped over your damn bow.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up Stark. Maybe that time I pranked you with the salt will make its way to the internet as well,” Clint replied. 

“You could try, but JARVIS likes me more than you. Mysterious internet outages have been known to suddenly occur to people who piss him off.” Tony resisted the childish urge to stick his tongue out at Clint, barely. 

Thor’s entrance cut off the bickering before it had a chance to really get going again. The landing pad Tony used as Iron Man worked just as well for an Asgardian with a supposedly magic hammer. 

“Greetings, my friends! I am pleased to find you all in good health.” Thor was as exuberant as ever. 

Everyone was excited to greet Thor and catch up with the happenings of the [x] months since he had returned to Asgard; except for Pepper, was the only one who hadn't previously met Thor.

After the greetings and introductions had been taken care of, Tony realised that Thor was clearly flying solo, as it were. “I thought you were planning on bringing Dr Foster here with you. Did she not want to come after all?” Tony could hear the note of disappointment in his voice, but if he was lucky maybe no-one else would notice it.

Thor reached out to grasp Tony by the shoulder, with more strength than was strictly necessary. “Do not despair my friend. I merely wished to make a grand entrance, as you had suggested when we spoke. My dear Jane waits downstairs. I believe she was quite intrigued with your… JARVIS? Jane’s friend Darcy has also accompanied us. I hope this is not too much of an imposition on your hospitality?”

“Don’t worry about it Thunderstruck, the more the merrier. And it’s not like there isn’t plenty of room here in the tower. JARVIS, direct them to the elevator.”

“Of course, Sir.”

The ‘ping’ of the elevator announced Jane and Darcy’s arrival to the common level. Thor was excited to introduce all of the Avengers to the ladies, except for Clint. Apparently Hawkeye had already met Darcy and Jane during a SHIELD mission,.which was a story Tony was going to have to pry out of one of them later. 

Tony found himself engaged in a fascinating discussion with Jane and Bruce about the latest research Jane had been involved in regarding  Einstein-Rosen bridges .

“Sir,” JARVIS interjected. “The deliveries of both pizza and Chinese have arrived. I took the liberty of ordering both options in order to accommodate the additional guests to the Tower, as it was unclear which choice would suit them.”

“Good job, J. I probably don't even want to know how much the food budget is going to skyrocket, do I? Damn freeloaders living in my Tower, eating enough to feed half the company,” Tony mock complained.

“Hey! I don't see your name on the side of the building. And I clearly recall hearing something about the name of this place changing to Avengers Tower,” came Clint’s smart ass reply. 

“And I don’t recall any of you paying rent, so my point stands- you’re all a bunch of freeloaders.” 

“Well, this freeloader is gonna help herself to the free food before it gets cold,” called out Darcy, which earned her an elbow in the side from Jane. 

That was prompt enough for everyone to to serve themselves the food they wanted before claiming seats in front of the TV. 

As expected, Jane and Thor sat together, as did Steve with Tony. Nat nabbed the seat on the couch next to Pepper, sitting very close. Tony was absolutely not going to comment on that interesting development, he knew better than to invite the wrath of either of the pair. It did, however, make Natasha's choice of movie make a lot more sense; Pepper had always had a love of Disney. 

Bruce took one of the armchairs for himself, leaving Clint and Darcy to squabble over the other armchair like children, Clint threatening to sit on Darcy while she attempted to shove him onto the floor; despite there being an entire couch unoccupied. 

An eventual compromise was settled on, involving an convoluted bargaining process trading who was required to bring snacks, future rights to the armchair, and other unspecified favours to be called in at a later date. Tony wasn't going to pretend to understand how it all worked, but the end result was Darcy sitting victoriously alone in the chair. 

No one else was game enough to comment on Nat and Pepper either, but apparently he and Steve were fair game. 

There was a sudden squeal of excitement from Darcy, once she was no longer distracted by her battle with Clint, when she looked in Tony and Steve’s direction and somehow guessed or realised that they were a  _ thing _ . 

“Why did no one tell me you two were…” Darcy trailed off making a hand-wavey gesture that was somehow supposed to represent what they were. 

Everyone turned to stare at him and Steve, but Tony was not going to get into this now. 

“Hit play for us JARVIS,” Tony asked, hoping to cut off any discussion of his relationship, but before whichever movie Nat had chosen could start there was another interruption. 

“Hey JARVIS,” Clint called out, “can I ask you to do the subtitles for me again. You do a much better job of it.”

“Of course, Agent Barton. I am pleased to hear my services are superior.”

Thor, who had never heard of subtitles before today, asked about their purpose, and was delighted to learn that they existed as a means to allow more people to enjoy the wonder of movies and television. 

“They would have been useful for me, back before, that's for sure,” Steve added. 

_ Beauty and the Beast  _ finally started playing, putting a stop to most of the conversations. There was the odd comment made throughout the movie, but talk was kept to a minimum. Tony had a few ideas he shared with Steve, but he mostly was just enjoying the excuse movie night gave him to snuggle up to Steve. 

Looking back, Tony wasn't quite sure how managed to happen, but what had begun as a private conversation about what to do or where to go on their first date somehow turned into planning an ‘Avengers and friends’ group outing. One minute Tony had jokingly suggested bowling as possibility, because at least then they wouldn't attract the media circus that was sure to follow at the slightest hint of anything actually date-like; the next the discussion had become a free-for-all, with everyone adding their two cents and . 

Tony shared a frustrated look with Steve, before sighing quietly to himself. “JARVIS, buddy, I know I can count on you to figure out the when and the where of this for us.” Tony slumped back, leaning against Steve. 

“Don’t worry Tony,” Steve whispered in his ear, “we’ll just have to be more careful next time we try and plan our first date.” 

Tony tilted his head around to face Steve and kissed him, happily ignoring the cheers and catcalls coming from their friends. 

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter: Rhodey, bowling, and an actual first date!
> 
> No promises on when it will be done, but it should be a lot quicker than the months I spent with writers block on this chapter. I also no longer have wedding planning taking up a lot of my time and attention, so *fingers crossed*
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](http://www.thudworm.tumblr.com).


End file.
